Monday, March 2, 2009

Japanese animated "Anne of Green Gables" film to premiere at Canadian Embassy in Tokyo

by Chris MaGee

Back in July we told you about how Budge Wilson's recent novel, a prequel to L.M. Montgomery's "Anne of Green Gables" titled "Before Green Gables", was going to be adapted into a Japanese animated film. Now word has come from Anime News Network that the film directed by Katsuyoshi Yatabe and titled "Konnichiwa Anne: Before Green Gables" will appropriately have its world premiere at the Canadian Embassy in Tokyo on March 16th. The film chronicles the early childhood of everyone's favorite P.E.I. girl as she's bounced from foster home to foster home with only her dreams and love of reading to keep her company. The 60-minute film kicks of a Japanese animated TV series, also called "Konnichiwa, Anne" that will begin airing on May 4th.

As I said in my initial posting about this, I'm still kind of flumoxed about the appeal of "Anne of Green Gables" in Japan, but then again I've never been a fan of Montgomery's books. I guess it's the same case as a Japanese person turning to me and saying, "Why would you be interested in Tora-san?"

"Konnichiwa, Anne: Before Green Gables" will screen on May 16th at 7:00 p.m. in the Oscar Peterson, Canadian Embassy Theater in Minato-ku, Tokyo and the best part is that it's free. You can check out more about the film by check its official website here.